Page 70 of Wraithwound

“Don’t—” Lena started, but Cross stepped toward the man named Wesher, drawing his sword as he did.

“She is a wraith, and she’s mine,” he said, violence leaking from his tone.

“That one will come with us,” said another man. “We’re under strict orders to retrieve her for the Commander.”

“It doesn’t matter what your Commander wants. My authority in this matter supersedes his,” Cross said.

“The Commander would be indebted to you if you were to grant him this favor,” said a voice from behind her. The man’s uniform indicated that he, too, was an officer.

The group from the west had sealed their exit, forming a circle around them that closed them in tightly.

“No,” Cross said, finality in his voice.

“But—” one of the men started.

“We’ll be on our way now,” Cross said, his voice turning into a growl.

The men shifted on their feet, hands twitching near the hilt of their swords. A cold sense of dread wrapped itself around her chest and squeezed. How long had they been out here, searching for her?

“There is one of you soulbound and eleven of us,” the other officer said.

“Move forward with that course of action, and it will be your last,” Cross promised.

When she saw the officers from each unit make eye contact and nod, she knew they’d made their choice. She turned to warn Cross, but he was already moving.

Pulling the dagger from his belt, he slit the throat of the first man and impaled another on his sword. The stillness of death filled the space for a moment, and Lena thought briefly the others might reconsider, but they did not.

Cross killed effectively, striking down the next man before the last fell. He moved around Lena, working to tuck her behind him to keep her out of harm’s way.

Once a hole opened in the guard’s formation, he pushed her toward it and shouted “Run!”

Ignoring the pain in her ankle, she ran, hoping to give Cross the space he needed to fight. Lena’s heart pumped madly as she pushed her body through the rocky terrain. Skittering pebbles and heavy footfalls let her know that there was more than one guard who had given chase. A quick glance behind her revealed four guards had split off from the group to hunt her down.

Despite the suffocating heat, she thought she’d make it a lot further before her legs gave out. She hit the ground, grabbing for her thigh when something slick and warm coated her hand. Protruding from her leg was an arrow—no, not an arrow, a bolt. All sense left her as she realized it was the same as the one sticking out of the eleuth’s shoulder.

Lena barely had time to react before she was being dragged on her stomach toward the guards. She tried to find purchase in the rocky terrain but realized she still held a glass vial clenched in her fist. A glance backward told her the same man dragging her away was the one who’d fired the bolt. Both bolts. She flipped her palm to reveal the vial clenched in her hand.

Red.

“Red means dead.” Rowena’s words echoed distantly in her mind.

The man yanked her roughly toward him and ordered the others to bind her hands and feet. The others seemed hesitant to approach her, to which he shouted, “Do it, now!” Then he leaned over her, asking, “Why haven’t you turned? Is that what the Commander deemed so special about you to have us out here for weeks?”

His hate-filled eyes took in the exposed wraithwound on her chest. Mouth widening into a cruel smile, he procured a small blade from his boot and dug it into the blackened flesh there. Pain erupted from the spot, and Lena had to bite down on her tongue to avoid screaming, but to her surprise and his, the knife did not cut her flesh.

The others gathered around to take a closer look. The man who’d finished binding her feet moved closer, a length of rope hanging from his hands intended for her wrists.

“Maybe we can use your flesh as armor when you’ve finished turning,” he said to her, placing a knife at her throat. He waved over a straggler who hadn’t originally given chase. “Come here, Bruto, take a look.”

The man went to grab her wrist. She had no way of knowing what the vial did, but this was her only chance to escape; she refused to be captured again. Lena flipped her palm up, showing the blood red vial that had been concealed in her palm.

“Wha—” But the guard didn’t have the opportunity to finish his sentence as Lena shoved it into his mouth with one hand and used her elbow to deliver a strike to his jaw with the other. The crunch of bone on glass assaulted her ears. Red mist poured from the man’s mouth as he screamed.

The pain was swift and excruciating once the vibrantly colored mist touched her skin. Lena tried to scramble backwards, to move away from the red cloud that expanded rapidly, but the bolt in her leg made it difficult. She wiped at her arms and face, trying to get the red mist off her skin but the burning only intensified. Writhing on the floor, Lena opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The edges of her vision began to turn black when she heard Cross’s voice.

“FUCK!” he shouted. If the situation weren’t so dire, she might have smiled at the familiarity of it because he sounded furious. So furious.

Chapter